


Excerpt from a Commentary on "Tale of the Champion"

by MissjuliaMiriam



Series: Willow [3]
Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Gen, Metafiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-11 00:45:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4414445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissjuliaMiriam/pseuds/MissjuliaMiriam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Willow 'Verse expansion. An in-universe commentary on Varric's book, written by a literary critic some years after the publication of "Tale of the Champion", and an excerpt therefrom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Excerpt from a Commentary on "Tale of the Champion"

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine that the commentary was done quite a while after Tale of the Champion was published, possibly even after Varric and the rests's deaths. This is basically just how I feel Varric would write about the events of Bow and Bend, and I wanted a little bit of perspective, so I included the critic's writing. I'm not planning to go out and write the entire Tale, but I wanted some sort of context for the excerpt within the rest of the book, and this is how I chose to do it. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this in terms of quality, but it felt like the right thing to do, so here it is. Enjoy, I suppose.

Commentary on _Tale of the Champion_

 

The first chapter of Act III is something of a departure from Tethras's usual writing style, and there is a pervasive rumour in the literary world that he had an extensive and vicious fight with his editor about the segment. He takes a more personal tone, speaking directly to the reader and offering very deep insight to some of the hardship that accompanied the life that he and Hawke were leading. Most of the book is about her heroics, and though there is tragedy, he never portrays her as weak. He also delves, for the first time, into his own feeling for another of her companions - his profession of friendship is moving, to say the least, and the defensiveness of the last sentences is very telling.

It is never revealed in the text of the _Tale_ what exactly happened to the elf, Fenris. Perhaps Tethras didn't know, or simply chose not to share. The reader is left with only a depiction of Hawke's pain, and the silent echoes in the description of events that denote Tethras's. Of all of the passages in the _Tale_ , this one is perhaps the most believable. Some of the _Tale of the Champion_ is exaggerated, but it _is_ largely a work of non-fiction. If "The Beginning of the End" does not in some way disturb the reader, nothing will. That this terrible thing could have happened, not only to a character all readers likely sympathized with, but to a real person who can suffer in a real way, is a tragedy, and should be considered such by all.

For those who require or would like a reminder of this remarkable passage from one of the most incredible books of the Dragon Age, read on. An excerpt (which consists, in fact, of the chapter in its entirety) follows.

 

* * *

 

 Act III, Part I - The Beginning of the End

> _We lost Fenris in the spring. The exact date I don't know, because at the time, none of us knew we should be keeping track. He and Hawke had had a fight - a bad one, the kind that breaks relationships, or at the least changes them forever. It was the kind of fight where one person says something that might just be unforgivable, and though I can't imagine she ever meant to say it, she still thought it was true - Hawke was like that. She never said anything she didn't mean; she subscribed to the belief that if you didn't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. That was the thing about her: her cruelties were in her silences, not in her words. Not usually. Maybe that's why it hit him so hard._
> 
> _Either way, none of us ever got to see what was going to become of them after that. Hawke left Fenris to pick at the scabs of the cuts she'd made, and of course he got restless. He came to me before he left Kirkwall. We'd talked, a few days about that, about the nature of slavery. I was worried, of course, but I thought, well, Fenris is capable - he'll be okay on his own for a few days. A few highwaymen couldn't do him any harm._
> 
> _I was wrong._
> 
> _Fenris was gone a week before we decided it had been too long and went after him. By then, we were far too late. We found his pack in the woods, and his sword, and we knew something had gone wrong. It was Hawke, Anders, Aveline, Merrill, and I at the start, but Aveline had to go back; Merrill did her best to track the people who'd taken Fenris, and we thought we were catching up._
> 
> _We weren't. Or maybe we were. Either way, we found a gang of mercenaries hired by a magister to lead us off his trail, and Fenris's armour, and no Fenris. He was long gone, the trail gone cold, and we returned to Kirkwall with nothing. The city was already starting to break apart, and suddenly so was Hawke; without Fenris, she was very alone, as much as we tried to look after her. She'd never taken any of us into her confidence like she had with him, not even Anders. She was fracturing just as much as Kirkwall was. I don't know if things might have been different if Hawke had been on the ball in those days - weeks, really - but the fact of the matter is that she wasn't. She was grieving. We had no idea what had happened to Fenris, and he was so irrevocably gone that he might as well have been dead. Hawke's heart was broken, of course, and I don't think she ever gave up on him; for all I know, she still hasn't. That was the kind of love they had, no matter what may have happened between them. It was an epic, storybook kind of thing, which you'd think would be right up my alley - after all, I'm a storyteller. But here's the truth: epic, storybook love? Tends to end badly._
> 
> _I did what I could. Hawke took a lot of hard hits in a very short period of time. Some you haven't read about yet; you'll get there. This one was the first, though, and whether you want to call it an omen of what was coming, or just the first rock in an avalanche, she never quite recovered. She never got the chance. I only wish I could have done more._
> 
> _Fenris is alive out there somewhere. I keep an ear out for him, but last I heard, he was doing okay. In the end, that's all any of us can ask. I don't know exactly where he is; I try not to wonder about it too much, except to wonder if he's okay. What he's doing with his life now is none of my business, and it's definitely none of yours. And, in any case, this story isn't about him._
> 
> _So. Back to Hawke._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are welcome, as always.


End file.
